Africa-Press – Malawi. Each ending and every new beginning bring us opportunities to do things right. Most of us had plans that we wanted to execute in this year, but not all that we envisioned was achieved. And that is just life.
But as the saying goes, the only different between successful people and failures is that the former try again each time they fail. As individuals, we should always aim at trying again, and the same applies to our leaders in this country. We must look at our failures as points of improvement in 2023.
It is sad that our nation has failed to progress over the years despite changing its leadership. In 2022, in particular, Malawians were horrified by the depth of the rot that keeps us lagging behind.
This is a year we have had revelations of nauseating corruption in State agencies, irresponsibility by some people in high offices, and system failure in general.
The scandals that made headlines in our daily newspapers do not reflect a country that is geared towards prosperity. It seems there are too many games being played at the expense of the powerless and the voiceless.
When they were being ushered into power back in 2020, President Lazarus Chakwera and Vice-President Saulos Chilima convinced us that they had the solutions to our problems.
They demonstrated high levels of knowledge on the diseases we suffer from and promised cures that we never doubted. But two years down the line, the most impatient of us are becoming disillusioned by what has so far transpired in their leadership.
2022 has revealed to us that, while the two leaders might have solutions in their minds, political ambitions have blurred their visions and there is a worrying loss of direction.
The infighting between the Malawi Congress Party and the UTM should be counted as one of our biggest losses in 2022. The country failed to move beyond certain hurdles simply because those who were supposed to hold our hands and help us jump are busy fighting each other.
The small, small political fights in the leadership have huge and grave effects on socio-political progress. If the squabbles in the governing alliance are not resolved going into 2023, Malawians should expect this socio-economic stagnation to worsen.
We have failed to make any gains this year and we may just lose it all in the next. To make matters worse, the opposition in Parliament has not done enough to help us. The only time they came to the fore was when there were elephants in the room that could not be ignored.
And one could tell that the noise that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), for example, made was just to ride a wave that would make us believe they have been sailing.
However, DPP has been blinded by its own infighting to the point that the party failed to put the Tonse Alliance in check. In the end, the two divides in Parliament have failed together, leaving the average citizen helpless.
We do not need the government to explain theories to us or to unwind what is contained in big policy documents for us to see that the country is developing. Progress is seen in simple things like electricity, good roads, a sound education system, a functioning justice system and a decent life for all.
These are the little things Malawians are asking for, and they shouldn’t be so hard to come by. The only problem is that the leadership puts politics ahead of human lives, and that is where we have lost it.
In 2023, we can only ask our political leaders to please work for the people and not for themselves alone. In all honesty, Malawians deserve better and we have the capacity to live a basic life only if those who control resources love us enough to see us thrive.
The battle for political glory has been a huge stumbling block in 2022 and most of us fear that things may just worsen in the coming years due to the elections coming in 2025. If all the energies of our leaders are invested in consolidating power, then there is nothing there for us.
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